Short Analysis of Par 61 - Corrected

Short analysis of par. 61 of the Preface of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit 2009 © Robbert Veen 61/1. What has been said can be expressed formally in this way. The word formally is essential here. This whole treatment of the nature of philosophical method by the use of general terms describing philosophical and non-philosophical propositions, remains external to the development of these notions in the science of logic.  61/2 The nature of judgment, that is, of the proposition per se which includes the distinction of subject and predicate within itself, is destroyed by the speculative judg­ment, and the identical proposition, which the former comes to be, contains the counter-stroke to those relations. 1. A proposition contains a distinction of subject and predicate. It is a special form of a senten­ce, which Hegel defines as predicating an event or an individual content of a subject, or as in universal sentences, (the predicate is an abstract universal) an external con­nection that derives its necessity from something other than itself. 2. The speculative proposition is an action taken against a normal proposition, destroying the distinction of the subject and predicate and emphasizing the identity of both, as expressed in the copula "is." So we go from the inherence of an universal contents in a posited subject, to an identification of two separate contents.  3. In a way we are left with two separate propositions: the one we started with that contains the difference of subject and predicate, and the one that expresses the result of the application of the speculative proposition, which is the same but now with the emphasis on the identity of subject and predicate. The result is that the difference of subject and predicate is now seen as a harmony of both their contents. That unity implies that the predicate expresses "substance" as well as the subject, and the subject expresses the universal content as well as the predicate, and that their difference is simply a difference of emphasis.  4. Going beyond that, we can say that both the logical unity and the logical difference are the necessary form of the judgment, that expresses the ontological nature of the reality in question. 61/4. This conflict between the form of a proposition per se and the unity of the concept which destroys that form is similar to what occurs in the rhythm between meter and accent. Rhythm results from the oscillating mid-point and unification of both. iambic pentameter , Meter= (5x iambe) So lóng as mén can bréathe and éyes can sée da-Dum-da-Dum-da-Dum-da-Dum-da-Dum Accent is: every second syllable has stress. Rythm is the whole, the iambic pentameter. 61/5. In that way, in the philosophical proposition, the identity of subject and predicate does not abolish their distinction, which is expressed in the form of the proposition. The identity of subject and predicate is like the unity of meter and accent in rhythm. It does not destroy the difference, but it keeps the different together. It allows for changes in form without changing the content. The form of the proposition emphasizes the difference but expresses identity as well. S ->P ------------------------ God is Love S(P) -> P(S) ---------------- Love is God (or: divine) S=P -------------------------- God expresses Love 61/6. Instead, their unity emerges as a harmony. The form of the proposition is the appearance of the determinate sense, that is, the accent that distinguishes its fruition. In the proposition one particular accent emerges: the predicate is universal content, and the logical subject refers to (a) substance. It stresses the predicate as the moment of determinacy. When the proposition is read with emphasis on identity, the two propositions appear as complementary. 61/7. However, when the predicate expresses the substance and the subject itself falls under the universal, there is the unity in which that accent fades away. The combination of these two propositions changes the accentuation of one to an equal distribution of emphasis, or rather the emphasis lies now in the middle, on the copula "is", that expresses both identity and difference: being as the logical unity of the different. The jambe (da-dum) becomes a trochee (dum-da) in the reversal, and then through their unification becomes a spondee (dum-dum).  61. Formell kann das Gesagte so ausgedrückt werden, daß die Natur des Urteils oder Satzes überhaupt, die den Unterschied des Subjekts und Prädikats in sich schließt, durch den spekulativen Satz zerstört wird, und der identische Satz, zu dem der erstere wird, den Gegenstoß zu jenem Verhältnisse enthält. - Dieser Konflikt der Form eines Satzes überhaupt und der sie zerstörenden Einheit des Begriffs ist dem ähnlich, der im Rhythmus zwischen dem Metrum und dem Akzente stattfindet. Der Rhythmus resultiert aus der schwebenden Mitte und Vereinigung beider. So soll auch im philosophischen Satze die Identität des Subjekts und Prädikats den Unterschied derselben, den die Form des Satzes ausdrückt, nicht vernichten, sondern ihre Einheit als eine Harmonie hervorgehen. Die Form des Satzes ist die Erscheinung des bestimmten Sinnes oder der Akzent, der seine Erfüllung unterscheidet; daß aber das Prädikat die Substanz ausdrückt und das Subjekt selbst ins Allgemeine fällt, ist die Einheit, worin jener Akzent verklingt.